Rio Grande do Sul

Rio Grande do Sul is a state in southern Brazil, with Porto Alegre serving as its capital. Under the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas, the region was allotted to Spain, which settled the River Plate along the Parana and Uruguay Rivers, first sending Jesuit missionaries. From 1636 to 1638, the Native Americans destroyed the missions and enslaved the Guarani inhabitants, but the Jesuits returned in 1687. In 1680, Portugal founded the Colonia do Sacramento on the northern bank of the River Plate in Uruguay, and the Portuguese and Spanish colonists intermittently warred until the Cisplatine War saw Uruguay win its independence in 1828. In 1737, the Portuguese built the village of Rio Grande, and, in 1752, a group of settlers from Azores founded Porto Alegre. The Portuguese eventually quelled Guarani resistance. In 1816, the Portuguese conquered Uruguay from the Spanish, but the Uruguayans declared independennce in 1828 and defeated the armies of Brazil, which attempted to keep the region a part of an independent Brazil. Rio Grande do Sul was a mostly agrarian region for decades, with the cattle industry dominating the local economy. In 1836, the Riograndense Republic seceded from Brazil due to the government's failure to protect the region's cattle industry against foreign competition, and the Ragamuffin War lasted until 1845, when the Empire of Brazil reincorporated Rio Grande do Sul after the longest and third bloodiest war of secession in Brazilian history. From 1872 to 1890, 60,000 Italian and German immigrants arrived in Rio Grande do Sul, whose population rose from 434,813 to 897,455. The Liberal Party of Brazil also established its hegemony over the province after 1872, having previously alternated power with the Conservative Party of Brazil. In 1893, 1923, and 1930, several revolutions and civil wars broke out, and each of them resulted in Rio Grande do Sul's defeat. By the 21st century, Rio Grande do Sul still had a gaucho culture, and, while it had the highest life expectancy rate and one of the lowest crime rates in the country, unemployment was still high. In 2016, Rio Grande do Sul had a population of 11,286,500 people.